Thief nabbed after family remembered phone ringing in the night and discovered call to taxi firm

A boozed-up burglar failed to cover his tracks after he called for a taxi from his victims’ home phone, giving his getaway lift his real name and address.

Blundering James Edward Bedford and his accomplice even attempted to pay for the taxi fare with a stolen laptop, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 3am call, with automatic ring-back facility enabled, led directly to Bedford’s arrest after the intruders snuck into the unlocked home in Redcar and pinched a laptop while a family slept upstairs.

The pair ran from the suspicious cab driver’s car in the early hours of November 27 last year, said prosecutor Victoria Lamballe.

Hours later, the victims woke up to find that the laptop and a camera were missing from their living room.

One of the family recalled the phone ringing in the night, and they discovered the call to the taxi firm.

Police spoke to the taxi driver, who remembered Bedford and the laptop payment offer.

Arrested a week later, Bedford claimed he knocked and went into the house just to phone the taxi and the unidentified man with him stole the laptop.

However, CCTV footage showed the two men pacing up and down before going into the home.

“This was clearly not a planned or a particularly effective burglary, given the way in which the miscreants were fool enough to ring for a taxi from the landline and even ask for a ring-back, and then give their home address to the taxi driver, obviously carrying stolen property,” said Duncan McReddie, defending.

The judge sentenced Bedford to a one-year prison sentence suspended for a year with supervision and 200 hours’ unpaid work.

“If I took the view that this was a sophisticated, well thought out burglary, then you would have been going into custody this afternoon,” said Recorder Tahir Khan QC.

Bedford got into a taxi as he left court, reports local newspaper The Gazette.